[Video report, captioned: "Li Peng Delivers Important Speech on
Behalf of Party Central Committee and State Council," at a meeting
of cadres from party, government, and army organs of the central
and Beijing municipal levels convened by the CPC Central Committee
and the State Council on May 19 -- place not given; live or
recorded [sic]; report is preceded by caption: "Important
News"]

[Unidentified announcer] A meeting of cadres from the party,
government, and army organs at the central and Beijing municipal
levels was convened by the CPC Central Committee and the State
Council on the evening of May 19. On behalf of the party Central
Committee and the State Council, Li Peng made an important
speech.

[Video begins with a close-up of Li Peng in a Mao suit, reading
from a prepared speech. During his address, video shows
medium-length shots of Yang Shangkun, Qiao Shi, Hu Qili, Wang Zhen,
and Yao Yilin seated, and pan shots of a conference hall with an
audience of approximately 1,000 people. Video focuses on Yang
Shangkun while he follows Li Peng in making a speech.]

[Li Peng] Comrades, in accordance with a decision made by the
Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee, the party Central
Committee and the State Council have convened a meeting here of
cadres from party, government, and army organs at the central and
Beijing municipal levels, calling on everyone to mobilize in this
emergency and to adopt resolute and effective measures to curb
turmoil in a clear-cut manner, to restore normal order in society,
and to maintain stability and unity in order to ensure the
triumphant implementation of our reform and open policy and the
program of socialist modernization [applause].

The briefing by Comrade Li Ximing, secretary of the Beijing
Municipal Party Committee, a little while ago indicated that the
current situation in the capital is quite grim. The anarchic state
is going from bad to worse. Law and discipline have been
undermined. Prior to the beginning of May, the situation had begun
to cool down as a result of great efforts. However, the situation
has become more turbulent since the beginning of May. More and more
students and other people have been involved in demonstrations.
Many institutions of higher learning have come to a standstill.
Traffic jams have taken place everywhere. The party and government
leading organs have been affected, and public security has been
rapidly deteriorating. All this has seriously disturbed and
undermined the normal order of production, work, study, and
everyday life of the people in the whole municipality. Some
activities on the agenda for state affairs of the Sino-Soviet
summit that attracted worldwide attention had to be canceled,
greatly damaging China's international image and prestige.

The activities of some of the students on hunger strike at
Tiananmen Square have not yet been stopped completely. Their health
is seriously deteriorating and some of their lives are still in
imminent danger. In fact, a handful of persons are using the hunger
strikers as hostages to coerce and force the party and the
government to yield to their political demands. In this regard,
they have not one iota of humanity [applause].

The party and the government have, on one hand, taken every
possible measure, to treat and rescue the fasting students. On the
other hand, they have held several dialogues with representatives
of the fasting students and have earnestly promised to continue to
listen to their opinions in the future, in the hope that the
students would stop their hunger strike immediately. But, the
dialogues did not yield results as expected. The square is packed
with extremely excited crowds who keep shouting demagogic slogans.
Right now, representatives of the hunger striking students say that
they can no longer control the situation. If we fail to promptly
put an end to such a state of affairs and let it go unchecked, it
will very likely lead to serious consequences which none of us want
to see.

The situation in Beijing is still developing, and has already
affected many other cities in the country. In many places, the
number of demonstrators and protesters is increasing. In some
places, there have been many incidents of people breaking into
local party and government organs, along with beating, smashing,
looting, burning, and other undermining activities that seriously
violated the law. Some trains running on major railway lines have
even been intercepted, causing communications to stop. Something
has happened to our trunk line, the Beijing-Guangzhou line. Today,
a train from Fuzhou was intercepted. The train was unable to move
out for several hours.

All these incidents demonstrate that we will have nationwide major
turmoil if no quick action is taken to turn and stabilize the
situation. Our nation's reforms and opening to the outside world,
the cause of the four modernizations, and even the fate and future
of the People's Republic of China, built by many revolutionary
martyrs with their blood, are facing a serious threat
[applause].

Our party and government have pointed out time and time again that
the vast numbers of young students are kindhearted, that
subjectively they do not want turmoil, and that they have fervent
patriotic spirit, wishing to push forward reform, develop
democracy, and overcome corruption. This is also in line with the
goals which the party and government have striven to accomplish. It
should be said that many of the questions and views they raise have
already exerted and will continue to exert positive influence on
improving the work of the party and government. However, willfully
using various forms of demonstrations, boycotts of class, and even
hunger strikes to make petitions have damaged social stability and
will not be beneficial to solving the problems. Moreover, the
situation has developed completely independent of the subjective
wishes of the young students. More and more it is going in a
direction that runs counter to their intentions.

At present, it has become more and more clear that the very, very
few people who attempt to create turmoil want to achieve, under the
conditions of turmoil, precisely their political goals which they
could not achieve through normal democratic and legal channels; to
negate the CPC leadership and to negate the socialist system. They
openly promoted the slogan of negating the opposition to bourgeois
liberalization. Their goal is to gain absolute freedom to
unscrupulously oppose the four cardinal principles. They spread
many rumors, attacking, slandering, and abusing principal leaders
of the party and state. At present, the spearhead has been focused
on Comrade Deng Xiaoping, who has made tremendous contributions to
our cause of reform and opening to the outside world. Their goal is
precisely to organizationally subvert the CPC leadership, overthrow
the people's government elected by the People's Congress in
accordance with the law, and totally negate the people's democratic
dictatorship. They stir up trouble everywhere, establish secret
ties, instigate the creation of all kinds of illegal organizations,
and force the party, the people, and the government to recognize
them. In doing so, they are attempting to lay a foundation and make
a breakthrough for the establishment of opposition factions and
opposition parties. If they should succeed, the reform and opening
to the outside world, democracy and legality, and socialist
modernization would all come to nothing, and China would suffer a
historical retrogression. A very promising China with a very bright
future would become a hopeless China without a future.

One important reason for us to take a clear-cut stand in opposing
the turmoil and exposing the political conspiracy of a handful of
people is to distinguish the masses of young students from the
handful of people who incited the turmoil. For almost a month, we
adopted an extremely tolerant and restrained attitude in handling
the student unrest. No government in the world would be so
tolerant. The reason that we were so tolerant was out of our loving
care for the masses of youths and students. We regard them as our
own children and the future of China. We do not want to hurt good
people, particularly not the young students. However, the handful
of behind-the-scenes people, who were plotting and inciting the
turmoil, miscalculated and took the tolerance as weakness on the
part of the party and government. They continued to cook up stories
to confuse and poison the masses, in an attempt to worsen the
situation. This has caused the situation in the capital and many
localities across the country to become increasingly acute. Under
such circumstances, the CPC, as a ruling party and a government
responsible to the people, is forced to take resolute and decisive
measures to put an end to the turmoil [applause].

It must be stressed that even under such circumstances, we should
still persist in protecting the patriotism of the students, make a
clear distinction between them and the very, very few people who
created the turmoil, and not penalize students for their radical
words and actions in the student movement. Moreover, dialogue will
continue in an active way through various channels, in different
forms, and at different levels between the party and the government
on one hand and the students and people from other walks of life on
the other, including dialogue with those students who have taken
part in parades, demonstrations, class boycotts, and hunger
strikes, in order to take full heed of opinions from all segments.
We will not only give clear-cut answers to the reasonable demands
raised by them, but will also pay close attention to and earnestly
accept their reasonable criticisms and suggestions, such as
punishing profiteering officials, getting rid of corruption, and
overcoming bureaucratism as well as promoting democracy, developing
education, and so forth, so as to earnestly improve the work of the
party and the government.

Under extremely complicated conditions in this period, many
responsible comrades and the masses of teachers and students have
taken pains and done a great deal of work to try to prevent
demonstrations and keep order on campuses. They have been called
campus traitors for their efforts. Public security personnel and
armed policemen have made great contributions in maintaining
traffic, social order, and security under extremely difficult
conditions. Government offices, factories, shops, enterprises, and
institutions have persisted in production and work, and made
strenuous efforts to keep social life in order. The party and the
government are aware of all this and are grateful; the people will
never forget [applause]. Now, to check the turmoil with a firm hand
and quickly restore order, I urgently appeal on behalf of the party
Central Committee and the State Council: First, to those students
now on hunger strike at Tiananmen Square to end the fasting
immediately, leave the square, receive medical treatment, and
recover their health as soon as possible. Second, to the masses of
students and people in all walks of life to immediately stop all
parades and demonstrations, and give no more so-called support to
the fasting students in the interest of humanitarianism. Whatever
the intent -- I will not say that their intent is ill -- further
support will push the fasting students to desperation
[applause].

Comrades, on behalf of the party Central Committee and the State
Council, I now, at this meeting, call on the whole party, the
entire army, and people of all nationalities throughout the country
to unite, to pull together, and to act immediately at all their
posts in an effort to stop the turmoil and stabilize the situation.
Party organizations at all levels must unite the broad masses, must
carry out thorough and painstaking ideological and educational
work, and must fully play the role of core leadership and fighting
fortress in stabilizing the situation. All Communist Party members
must strictly abide by party discipline. They should not only stay
away from any activities harmful to stability and unity, but they
should also provide an exemplary vanguard role in uniting the
masses and curbing the turmoil.

Governments at various levels must enforce administrative
discipline and law, conscientiously strengthen leadership and
control over their regions and departments, and earnestly carry out
the work of stabilizing the situation, of reform, and of economic
construction.

All government functionaries must stick to their own posts and
maintain normal work order. All public security personnel should
make greater efforts to maintain traffic and social order, to
intensify social security, and to resolutely crack down on criminal
activities of all kinds that have emerged. All industrial and
commercial enterprises and institutions should abide by work
discipline and persist in normal production. Schools of various
kinds and at various levels should maintain normal teaching order.
Those on strike should resume classes unconditionally.

Comrades, our party is a party in power and our government is a
people's government. To be responsible to our sacred motherland and
to all people, we must adopt firm and resolute measures to end the
turmoil swiftly, to maintain the leadership of the party as well as
the socialist system. We believe that our actions will surely have
the support of all members of the Communist Party and the Communist
Youth League, as well as workers, peasants, intellectuals,
democratic parties, people in various circles, and the broad masses
[applause]. We believe that we will certainly have the backing of
the People's Liberation Army [PLA], which is entrusted by the
Constitution with guarding the country and the peaceful work of the
people [applause]. At the same time, we also hope that the broad
masses will fully support the PLA, the public security cadres, and
the police in their efforts to maintain order in the capital
[applause].

Comrades, under the conditions of resolutely safeguarding stability
and unity, we must continue to adhere to the four cardinal
principles, to persist in the reform and opening up to the outside
world, to strengthen democracy and the legal system, to eliminate
all kinds of corruption, and to strive to advance the cause of
socialist modernization [applause].

[Qiao Shi] Will Comrade Shangkun please make a speech?
[applause]

[Yang Shangkun] First of all, I fully support the report and the
various demands that Comrade Li Peng has made on behalf of the
Standing Committee of the Political Bureau. Beijing of late is
actually in an anarchistic state. Basically, the work of government
organs, classes in schools, transportation, industry, and so forth
have all been thrown into a confused state. This confused state is,
in reality, a state of anarchy. Comrade Li Peng has just said that
with regard to such a historic event as the Sino-Soviet talks, we
could not hold the welcoming ceremony at Tiananmen. The location
was changed to the airport at the last moment. Several discussions
that should have been held at the Great Hall of the People were
compelled to take place at Diaoyutai Guest House. In addition, some
activities previously scheduled were canceled. Such a state of
affairs....

[Unidentified person, interrupting] Even the wreath could not be
presented.

[Yang Shangkun] Even the originally scheduled presentation of a
wreath at the Monument of the People's Heroes could not be held.
This has produced a very bad effect on our foreign relations. Even
you had no freedom in driving here for this meeting. You had to
make many detours to arrive here. You had to depart from your place
one hour or more earlier in order to arrive at this meeting place
in time. If this state of affairs is allowed to continue, then our
capital will not be a capital. The work of the Beijing Municipality
cannot be carried out, and the work of the State Council cannot be
carried out. This is extremely serious.

To restore, normal order, to restore public order, to stabilize the
situation in Beijing Municipality, and to restore normal order [as
heard] there is no choice but to move a group of the PLA to the
vicinity of Beijing [applause; pan shots show presence of several
uniformed men seated in the hall, also applauding].

The military vehicles on the road which you saw just now are those
of the PLA troops entering the vicinity of Beijing Municipality a
short while ago. This was done out of absolute necessity. It is
because the police force in Beijing Municipality has been unable to
maintain order in the Municipality. In addition, nearly all the
armed police and public security cadres and police in Beijing
Municipality have been working hard day and night for the past
month. Many comrades have been sick, yet they have had no choice
but to stand on duty day and night, some without sleep for two or
three days. Thus, without a group of PLA entering here to maintain
public order in Beijing Municipality, order, we believe, would be
very difficult to restore.

The arrival of PLA troops in the vicinity of Beijing is definitely
not aimed at dealing with students. They have not come here to deal
with the students. Their aim is to restore the normal order of
production, of life, of work in Beijing Municipality. At the same
time, they aim to protect a number of important departments and
major government organs. Therefore, the stationing of the PLA
troops in the capital is aimed at maintaining public security. They
are, by no means, directed at the students. Everyone will be able
to clearly see their activities in the next few days
[applause].

That is to say that the PLA troops are compelled to enter the
capital in order to restore the normal order in Beijing, maintain
public security, and prevent important government organizations
from being affected or stormed. I would like to explain this point
clearly to all those who are present here. The PLA troops' arrival
is definitely not aimed at dealing with the students. It is hoped
that all trades and professions, people in various circles, and
particularly people of the various democratic parties will support
the PLA troops for their action to safeguard the capital and
maintain public security. I hope that you will give them your full
understanding and support [applause].

This is the point that I wanted to explain to you comrades here. I
have nothing else to say. That is all [applause].

[Announcer] Attending the meeting were the president and vice
president of the state, members of the Standing Committee of the
Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee currently in Beijing,
and responsible comrades from the CPC Central Committee, the State
Council, the National People's Congress, the Central Military
Commission, the Central Advisory Commission, the National Committee
of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and
Beijing Municipality.

At the beginning of the meeting, Li Ximing, secretary of the
Beijing Municipal Party Committee, briefed the meeting about the
current situation in Beijing Municipality.